Breakfast Creek Hotel & Pub

Hamilton

A Brisbane icon, ingrained irrevocably in the psyche of generations of locals because of the Spanish Steakhouse first and its tropical beer garden second but a visit should definitely include both.

Part of its enduring appeal is that short of being tarted up every now and then everything is essentially the same as it has been for decades – the beer, the steak and the in house ghost.

The tiled Spanish Steakhouse, established in 1968, is still enclosed by stucco white arches and the formula - choosing your own hefty steak, deciding how it’s cooked and the accompaniments of baked potato, coleslaw, bread roll and bacon sauce has never varied.

Similarly the beer garden, claimed to be Brisbane’s first, still serves beer from wooden kegs.

The grand French Renaissance style hotel itself, built during boom times in 1888 was perhaps always destined to be noteworthy, given that its first publican, a former Lord mayor of Brisbane, fell to his death from a first floor balcony after over indulging in his own. It is his ghost that has been reportedly sighted by patrons and staff over the years.